Phil Mickelson

Born: June 16th, 1970 in San Diego, California

Nationality: American

Famous For: Having 40 plus tournament wins

Awards: World Golf Hall of Fame, Haskins Award

Phil Mickelson is an American professional golfer who has won 42 events on the PGA Tour. This includes 5 major championships: 3 Masters Titles, an Open Championship in 2013 and a PGA Championship in 2005. Phil Mickelson is one of the fifteen golfers in the history of the sport to win at least 3 of the 4 professional majors. The U.S. Open is the only major that he has not won. If he won this, he would join the elite group of golf’s “Career Grand Slam” winners that includes Tiger Woods, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Gene Sarazen and Ben Hogan.

Early Life

Phil was born in 1970 in San Diego. He started golfing as a very young child. He started amateur golfing career when he was just a teenager and he managed to win 34 San Diego Junior Golf Association titles. His mother decided to take another job to help pay for the American Junior Golf Association play. There he won 3 consecutive AJGA Rolex Player of the Year awards and also a scholarship to the Arizona State University.

Pro Golfer

During his time at Arizona State, Phil won 3 NCAA individual champions, 3 Haskins Awards and became the second golfer to get 1st team All-American honors all 4 years.

While still in junior college in 1990, he became the very first left-hander to be the winner of U.S. Amateur title. The same year, he surprised many people when he won a PGA Tour tournament as amateur, becoming the 4th golfer in the PGA history to do so.

Phil earned his own bachelor’s degree at the ASU just after the 1991 win in Tucson. He turned professional in 1992 and his first win as professional was in 1993 at Torrey Pines. He continued to win other PGA tournaments such as World Series of Golf in 1996 and Byron Nelson Golf Classic.

In 1998, Phil won the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and later, in the year 2000, he won Colonial National Invitation and Buick Invitational. At the 2004 Masters he won his very first major championship.

Winning Streak

In the year 2007, Forbes magazine estimated Phil’s earnings for that year to be $42 million; this made him one of highest paid golf players. In 2009, Phil came close to winning the U.S. Open champion. The same year, he defended his 5th career title at Northern Trust Open.

The following season marked his 18th year on PGA Tour. This was not as noteworthy as the previous season, since he only managed just 1 top 10 finish in his first 7 starts. In 2012, Phil Mickelson tied for 3rd place at the Masters Tournament. Phil later scored a tremendous victory at the British Open. He excelled in the Open’s final round, passing Tiger Woods and other famous golfers on the scoreboard.